Serial Killer 'Victim' Turns Up Alive & Well After 40 Years

John Wayne GacyThis ought to put a little happy in your holidays. The family of a man who hasn't been seen in 41 years has their long lost brother back! Robert Hutton has been gone since 1972, and he was long feared to be a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. But he's alive!

After 40+ years! It's a Christmas miracle!

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OK, not exactly. It turns out Hutton was found alive and well and living in Montana back in April. The news is just now coming out, however, and for anyone whose relative has been missing for a long time, his story injects a little bit of hope back into the holidays for sure.

Apparently Hutton was 21 when he went missing in 1972. He was on his way to New York from California and presumed to have traveled through Chicago -- right where Gacy was active and right during the killer's active years. Young and likely hitchhiking, Hutton fit the profile for the killer's victims to a "T," so it's no surprise his sister put his name forth to investigators as someone Gacy likely might have killed.

Might being the operative word! When investigators tracked him down, he was very much alive ... albeit a little sheepish that he'd never gone back to his family.

I'm not a violent person, but I could see his sister smacking him upside the head -- jokingly of course! -- when they reunite! It's the least he deserves for leaving his poor family hanging for four decades!

Apparently missing persons cases are more hopeful than one would think. Around 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day. That's kids and adults, and it's a pretty scary statistic. But when you break it down, very few are actual kidnappings or abductions.

The statistics show at least one-sixth of people who disappear have psychiatric problems. At least half of the missing kids in this country are runaways, and another quarter are family abductions.

And then there are people like Robert Hutton who just ... disappear. Nothing bad happened; in fact, it seems time simply passed by, and by the time he realized he hadn't contact his family in awhile, he felt bad about it. Guilt compounded, and well ... 40-some years passed.

But he's alive, folks! He's ALIVE!

And this isn't some TV movie of the week. This is real life. Because these things can happen ...

Just a little something to think about ...

Is there someone you haven't heard from in a long, long time? Do you still hold out hope?